


Surprisingly Ordinary

by Lunarflare14



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Awkward Dates, Fast Food, M/M, Secret Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-20
Updated: 2014-06-20
Packaged: 2018-02-05 12:07:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1817884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarflare14/pseuds/Lunarflare14
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Do you want to get some Arby’s?”</p><p>It took a second for Derek to realize it was Stiles. “What?”</p><p>“Arby’s? Me. You. Curly fries.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Surprisingly Ordinary

Derek was at the loft alone when his phone rang. He was five hours into his Top Chef marathon, so he just picked it up without looking and grumbled, “Hello?”

“Do you want to get some Arby’s?”

It took a second for Derek to realize it was Stiles. Looking out the window, he realized it was getting dark out. He’d been in front of the television all afternoon. That explained why his brain felt like it was made of mush. “What?”

“Arby’s? Me. You. Curly fries.”

The alpha frowned deeply. “Did Scott ditch you?” That was probably exactly what happened. Stiles sounded suspicious. Without physical queues like smell and sight all he could hear was alternative motives. What motives he wasn’t sure. But knowing Stiles it was probably nothing good.

“No.” And that doesn’t sound like a lie, but again, no other queues to go off of.

“Then take Scott.”

“…He has homework.”

Derek pinched the bridge of his nose. That pinged as a lie. “Is something wrong with the Jeep again?”

“No.” That was only probably not a lie.

“So you just want me to drop everything and go to Arby’s with you?”

“If you don’t want to go that’s fine. You just had to say that.” Derek really wasn’t sure what emotion that was in Stiles voice. Annoyance? Maybe disappointment. Ugh. Why was he fighting it? It was just a fast food place. It wasn’t like it was far away or he wasn’t hungry or that he couldn’t tolerate Stiles presence.

“Fine. I’ll come with you to Arby’s.”

“Sweet! You want to drive or should I?”

For a moment Derek didn’t know what to say. “Uh, you can drive I guess.” It was out of his mouth before he could rethink it and damn. What the hell?

“Cool. See you in a few!” Stiles announced, excited. Derek couldn’t imagine why he would be. It was probably the prospect of curly fries.

It took another few seconds for him to curse loudly because he was sitting in just some pajama pants and in no way ready to leave the house. He padded down the hall to his room and rooted around through his closet. He was reaching for a boring black t-shirt when he stopped abruptly. Stiles had never wanted to hang out with just him before. It wasn’t like Stiles was ever really desperate for companion ship, unless it was from that Lydia girl. Usually Stiles was a bit more forward when he wanted something from Derek.

So there must have been some ulterior motive.

It wasn’t that Derek didn’t want to go with Stiles, it just wasn’t their usual thing. Usually they only interacted if the town was in some kind of mortal peril. Most days all Stiles seemed to want to do was argue about his methods or his house or the pack or his fashion sense ( _it’s the only jacket I own, it’s black, it goes with everything_ ).

It was entirely too suspicious but a part of him kind of hoped that it really was just a desire to hang out with Derek. Squashing down that part of him was getting harder and harder these days. The loft felt empty without anyone around and Stiles just had this way of making the place feel full. It was probably all the arm flailing, the kid took up space.

Derek grabbed for the long sleeve, olive green shirt—not because it matched his eyes or was just shy of too tight. That would be ridiculous. No one would see it under the leather jacket anyway. Really. Shirt decided with no ulterior motives, he reached in and grabbed a random pair of jeans without thinking about it—though he may have spent a few seconds thinking about thinking about it.

Derek took one look in the mirror and immediately gave up on his hair. It was fine. It was stupid to worry about hair anyway.

Stiles pulled up outside the loft a few minutes later and Derek climbed into the passenger’s seat. Immediately, he was met with the smell of some kind of body spray he’d never smelled on Stiles which caused him to give Stiles a suspicious once over. An attempt at subduing his new fluffy hair style was made and aborted and he wasn’t wrapped up in ten layers cloths like he usually was, just a lower than usual V-neck and jeans that smelled new. He looked good.

Stiles was just kind of staring at him with a really big, stupid looking grin. Derek did his best to pretend he hadn’t been staring.

“What?”

Stiles snapped out of it. “Right, yeah, Arby’s.”

Silence fell as Stiles began to drive. Arby’s was across town, so they probably had few minutes.

“So what have you been up to today?” Stiles asked out of nowhere.

There was nothing Derek was worse at then small talk. He wasn’t good at it. It came out in short bursts that made him sound more caveman then anything else. “Stuff.”

Stiles laughed. “Right. Stuff. Things. Rick would be proud.”

“I don’t understand that reference.”

That got a laugh out of Stiles and Derek wasn’t sure why. “Never mind, I forget you live under a rock.” He glared at Stiles. “I mean, there are worse ways to spend your day. My dad has had this Top Chef marathon on for hours before he left for work. ”

Derek looked away. What was wrong with Top Chef? Nothing. And he wasn’t blushing either. “So, you’ve been nothing but productive today then?” Derek was also not defensive.

Stiles shrugged. “I finally got all the achievements in Crysis 2?”

Derek didn’t know what that meant. But it definitely didn’t sound like productivity… at least no more than watching Top Chef did. “Congrats.”

“I appreciate that you put in the effort to pretend to know what I’m talking about.  Really. It means a lot.” They pulled up to the Arby’s with the sun low in the sky. They exited the car and Stiles came around to stop him. “Wait. I want to show you something.” And he looked so eager that Derek could only stand there in confusion as the teenager jumped up to sit on the hood of his Jeep. He patted the spot next to him.

“You’re serious?”

“Come on, Atlas, put the world down and get up here.”

 Derek rolled his eyes before climbing up next to him. He made sure there was a little space between them. Stiles had made it kind of clear about the need for personal space before. Without a word, Stiles looked up. Derek tilted his head back and—

“What the—“

“I’ve already looked into it. And while at first I was suspicious, I finally understood and it’s fine. This seems to be a weird common occurrence for the franchise.” Stiles blurted out. “I just. I don’t know. I needed to share.”

But Derek was still looking up. There were lights above the Arby’s. Not the Arby’s sign—he isn’t an idiot— actual floating lights. They seemed to be just floating lazily in circles around each other, dancing fluorescents in pale yellows and blues and greens. “So… We don’t need to kill it, that’s what you’re saying?”

Stiles snorted. “Uh, yeah, gonna go with that one. No one seems to really notice them anyway. I asked the cashier and he had no idea what I was talking about.”

Tearing his eyes away from the almost hypnotic pull of the lights, he looked at Stiles. “This is why you wanted to bring me to Arby’s?”

 Stiles kept staring at them, smiling a little. “Yeah, but also the curly fries.” Derek chuckled and looked back up at the lights. Then Stiles whispered so softly he almost didn’t catch it, “and maybe to see you.”

Derek’s world came to a grinding halt because that’s the piece in the puzzle he’d been missing.

Suddenly, Derek understood. And the lights danced above, swirling around and together and back and he understood.

Which was weird because there was an epic amount of things in the world he didn’t understand but this moment, the lights, Stiles?

This was a date.

Everything clicked into place. His whole being did just one big ‘oh’. Everything had seemed weird because this had all the makings of a date but the word had never been mentioned.

He could hear Stiles' heartbeat kick up at his silence and it was all on him. It was his for the taking; all he had to do was acknowledge it.

There was something so fragile in that moment. Like everything could shatter around them if they breathed too heavily.

Derek took Stiles’ hand, resting their laced fingers on his knee. He didn’t have to look at Stiles to know he was smiling.

“It’s kind of nice, not having to kill something supernatural for once. To just let it be.”

“Yeah. Those were my thoughts exactly.”

His world was weird and mythical and unexplainable. There were monsters in the dark and life was particularly fleeting to the people of the town. There were hunters and werewolves and dark powers they had only just begun to imagine and weird lights above the Arby's and it was all confusing and huge and too much but one thing in Beacon Hills made perfect sense.

This was simple and uncomplicated. Just Stile’s hand in his, watching the lights in the sky.

“Not that this isn’t nice. But I really do want those curly fries,” Derek said as he gave Stiles’ hand a squeeze.

Stiles grinned. “Nah, I’m thinking we could just stay out here. Not actually buy food.”

“I’ll pay.”

Stiles continued to stare at the sky, a look of exaggerated consideration on his face. “Okay, if you insist.”

Derek huffed, jumping down off the hood of the Jeep. “If you’re good maybe I’ll even let you take me to the movies.”

Stiles phone binged and he checked it. “Drive thru…” They turned to see a police cruiser just leaving the window. The sheriff gave them a little wave as he rolled out of the Arby’s parking lot. “Oh God.”

Derek laughed. He couldn’t help it. “Is he gonna give me the ‘I have a gun’ speech?”

“I hope not. I mean, it’s probably implied.” Stiles phone binged another text. “Oh my god. What is wrong with him?”

Derek snatched the phone before Stiles could get rid of the text. _Good job son. Use protection._ “This is infinitely better.”

Stiles put his head in his hands. “He’s probably driving to the store right now to buy a shit ton of condoms.”

His cheeks hurt from holding back laughter. Clearly he spoke to soon. This wasn’t going to be simple or uncomplicated. It was probably going to be awkward and messy and if it all went south, it would be one more thing he’d have to survive and he wasn’t sure he was up for the task.

But even if he wasn’t, it was something _normal_. It was something to hold onto. That alone made it worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> there is a super heavy reference to Welcome to Night Vale the podcast, and the Floating Lights Above the Arby's ongoing story in that podcast. like I literally took that and put it to Sterek. you should give it a listen.


End file.
